Modern manufacturing and industrial environments utilize a diverse set of machinery requiring regular maintenance and oversight. For example, motors and/or power transmission equipment used in manufacturing environments may operate continuously for several hours every day.
Diagnosing issues with industrial machinery can be expensive and can require extensive knowledge. For example, in some environments maintenance is performed by trained personnel using expensive measuring equipment. The measuring equipment may be highly precise and complex. As a result, the personnel operating such measuring equipment may require extensive training, both in using such measuring equipment and in interpreting the results. For example, the personnel must often know the exact place to place probes for the measuring equipment, which may depend on the type of machinery being monitored. Similarly, interpreting the results may require knowledge of exactly what types of measurements are expected for that type of machinery, running at that speed, and what types of anomalies might be present based on the types of measurements that are collected.
One type of measuring equipment measures vibrations of the machinery. While vibrations are expected during the operation of machinery, measuring equipment can detect, by a person with the proper training, that the vibrations are anomalous from vibrations that are expected. For example, the vibrations may be more pronounced, more erratic, at a different frequency, etc. By reading the vibrations or characteristics in different directions and/or at different locations under specific conditions, trained personnel can detect that the condition of the machinery has changed, which may require increased monitoring and/or scheduled repair.